I would rather quit public life at seventy, and quit it forever, than to retain public life at a sacrifice to my own self-respect. I will not vote for any law which will make fair for me and foul for another. The blacklist is the most cruel form of oppression ever devised by man for the infliction of suffering upon his weaker fellows.

Cannon noted that Samuel Gompers blacklisted him for opposing the legislation. Uncle Joe Cannon, who was Speaker of the House 19031911, served in the House for 46 years.

Cannon expanded this passage in a speech in Lewiston, Maine, September 5, 1906, while successfully campaigning for Representative Charles Littlefield, to counter efforts of Gompers and his labor forces to defeat Littlefield. Here, he said,  any law which will make fish of one and fowl of another.Joseph G. Cannon papers, box 1, Illinois State Historical Library, Springfield, Illinois.